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The sermon presents salvation as wholly initiated and accomplished by God rather than earned by human goodness, intelligence, morality, or religious assistance. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit act together in salvation: the Father gives and adopts, the Son redeems, and the Spirit regenerates and sanctifies. God saves sinners for His name’s sake, displaying His merciful and gracious nature through Christ’s substitutionary death. The appropriate response is sorrowful confession, turning to Christ, trusting His cross, and believing for life.
Theological center: Salvation is the work of the Triune God, grounded in God’s name and glory and accomplished for sinners through Christ’s substitutionary atonement.
Applications: Come to Christ · Reject Self-Reliance · Consider God’s Glory · Recognize God Alone Saves
Primary texts: Psalm 106:8 · Psalm 77:20 · Isaiah 1:3
“Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake.” Psalm 106:8 IN looking upon the works of God in creation, there are two questions which at once occur to the thoughtful mind and which must be answered before we can procure a clue to the philosophy and science of creation itself. The first one is the question of authorship—Who made all these things? And the next question is that of design—For what purpose were all these things created? The first question, “Who made all these things?” is one which is easily answered by a man who has an honest conscience and a sane mind, for when he lifts his eyes up yonder to read the stars, he will see those stars spell out in golden letters this word—God. And when he looks below upon the waves, if his ears are honestly opened, he will hear each wave proclaiming, God. If he looks to the summits of the mountains, they will not speak, but with a dignified answer of silence they seem to say, “The hand that made us is Divine.” If we listen to the rippling of the freshet at the mountainside, to the tumbling of the avalanche, to the lowing of the cattle, to the singing of the birds, to every voice and sound of nature, we shall hear this answer to the question, “God is our maker; he hath made us, and not we ourselves.” The next question, as to design—Why were these things made?—is not so easy to answer, apart from Scripture. But when we look at Scripture, we discover this fact—that as the answer to the first question is God, so the answer to the second question is the same. Why were these things made? The answer is, for God’s glory, for His honor, and for His pleasure. No other answer can be consistent with reason. Whatever other replies men may propound, no other can be really sound. If they will for one moment consider that there was a time when God had no creatures—when He dwelt alone, the mighty Maker of ages, glorious in an uncreated solitude, divine in His eternal loneliness, “I am and there is none beside me”—can anyone answer this question—Why did God make creatures to exist?—in any other way than by answering it thus, “He made them for His own pleasure and for His own glory.” You may say He made them for His creatures. But we answer, there were then no creatures to make them for. We admit that the answer may be a sound one now. God makes the harvest for His creatures. He hangs the sun in the firmament to bless His creatures with light and sunshine. He bids the moon walk in her course by night, to cheer the darkness of His creatures upon earth. But the first answer, going back to the origin of all things, can be nothin…